theatrical production: Preparation of content: …activity, usually termed episodes or scenes, can include many kinds of behaviour—e.g., persuasion of one person by another, delivery of a speech, singing of a song, hand-to-hand combat.

Matt LeBlanc: Later credits: Joey, Episodes, and Top Gear: Episodes was a hit with critics and TV viewers, and LeBlanc won a Golden Globe in 2012. During this time he also starred in the sitcom Man with a Plan (2016–20), about a father who assumes much of the parenting responsibilities when his wife returns…

Algernon Henry Blackwood: …experiences that he recalled in Episodes Before Thirty (1923), Blackwood returned to England in 1899. Seven years later he published his first book of short stories, The Empty House (1906), and became a full-time fiction writer. Later collections include John Silence (1908), stories about a detective sensitive to extrasensory phenomena,…

Episodios nacionales, vast series of short historical novels, comprising 46 volumes, by Benito Pérez Galdós, published between 1873 and 1912. The scope and subject matter of these novels—the history and society of 19th-century Spain—put Pérez Galdós in the company of such writers as Honoré de

episome, in bacteria, one of a group of extrachromosomal genetic elements called plasmids, consisting of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and capable of conferring a selective advantage upon the bacteria in which they occur. Episomes may be attached to the bacterial cell membrane (such a cell is

urogenital malformation: Epispadias, an uncommon malformation of the male genital system in which the urethra opens on the upper surface of the penis. In hypospadias, often familial, the urethra opens on the underside of the penis. Plastic surgery can repair both anomalies.

heredity: Epistatic genes: Examples of epistasis abound in nonhuman organisms. In mice, as in humans, the gene for albinism has two variants: the allele for nonalbino and the allele for albino. The latter allele is unable to synthesize the pigment melanin. Mice, however, have another pair of alleles involved in…

epistatēs, public official in ancient Greece, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Hellenistic world. The 5th-century-bce Athenian epistatēs acted as chairman of the prytaneis, the executive committee of the Boule (council), and, for the 24-hour period of this office, functioned as the head of the government,

epistatic gene, in genetics, a gene that determines whether or not a trait will be expressed. The system of genes that determines skin colour in man, for example, is independent of the gene responsible for albinism (lack of pigment) or the development of skin colour. This gene is an epistatic gene.

animal breeding: Breeding and variation: Epistatic variation is caused by the joint effects of genes at two or more loci. There has been little deliberate use of this type of genetic variation in breeding because of the complex nature of identifying and controlling the relevant genes.

nosebleed, an attack of bleeding from the nose. It is a common and usually unimportant disorder but may also result from local conditions of inflammation, small ulcers or polypoid growths, or severe injuries to the skull. Vascular disease, such as high blood pressure, may provoke it, and such

epistemic community, in international relations, a network of professionals with recognized expertise and authoritative claims to policy-relevant knowledge in a particular issue area. Such professionals may have different backgrounds and may be located in different countries, but they share a set

applied logic: Epistemic logic: The application of logical techniques to the study of knowledge or knowledge claims is called epistemic logic. The field encompasses epistemological concepts such as knowledge, belief, memory, information, and perception. It also turns out that a logic of questions and answers, sometimes called…

Christianity: Evidentialist approach: Such belief inevitably involves epistemic risk—the risk of error versus the risk of missing the truth. But perhaps the right to believe that was defended by William James applies in this situation.

philosophy of mathematics: The epistemological argument against Platonism: The epistemological argument is very simple. It is based on the idea that, according to Platonism, mathematical knowledge is knowledge of abstract objects, but there does not seem to be any way for humans to acquire knowledge of abstract objects. The…

Richard Rorty: According to his “epistemological behaviourism,” Rorty held that no statement is epistemologically more basic than any other, and no statement is ever justified “finally” but only relative to some circumscribed and contextually determined set of additional statements. In the philosophy of language, Rorty rejected the idea that sentences…

rationalism: Epistemological rationalism in ancient philosophies: The first Western philosopher to stress rationalist insight was Pythagoras, a shadowy figure of the 6th century bce. Noticing that, for a right triangle, a square built on its hypotenuse equals the sum of those on its sides and that…

objectivism: …or thought about), epistemological (or direct) realism (things in the world are perceived immediately or directly rather than inferred on the basis of perceptual evidence), ethical egoism (an action is morally right if it promotes the self-interest of the agent), individualism (a political system is just if it properly respects…

epistemology, the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. The term is derived from the Greek epistēmē (“knowledge”) and logos (“reason”), and accordingly the field is sometimes referred to as the theory of knowledge. Epistemology has a long history within Western

skeleton: Pectoral girdle: …in the midline by the interclavicle. Carinate birds (those with a keeled sternum) possess a sabre-shaped scapula and a stout coracoid process, joined by ligaments at the point at which is found the glenoid cavity for articulation with the humerus. The coracoid process is joined to the sternum; at its…

epistilbite, hydrated sodium and calcium aluminosilicate mineral in the zeolite family. It forms piezoelectric crystals of monoclinic symmetry and platy habit; the latter property has caused epistilbite to be assigned to a group typified by heulandite (q.v.). More recently, X-ray diffraction

epistle, a composition in prose or poetry written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group. In literature there are two basic traditions of verse epistles, one derived from Horace’s Epistles and the other from Ovid’s Epistulae heroidum (better known as Heroides). The tradition based

The Letter of Jeremiah, apocryphal book of the Old Testament, in the Roman canon appended as a sixth chapter to the book of Baruch (itself apocryphal in the Jewish and Protestant canons). The work is supposedly a letter sent by Jeremiah to Jews exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadrezzar in 597 bc,

Letter of Paul to Philemon, brief New Testament letter written by St. Paul the Apostle to a wealthy Christian of Colossae, in the ancient Roman province of Asia (now in western Turkey), on behalf of Onesimus, who was enslaved to Philemon and may have run away from him. The epistle is the 18th book

Letter of James, New Testament writing addressed to the early Christian churches (“to the twelve tribes in the dispersion”) and attributed to James, a Christian Jew, whose identity is disputed. There is also wide disagreement as to the date of composition, though many scholars hold that it was

Letter of Paul to the Colossians, twelfth book of the New Testament, addressed to Christians at Colossae, Asia Minor, whose congregation was founded by St. Paul the Apostle’s colleague Epaphras. The developed theology of the letter, many believe, indicates that it was either composed by Paul in

Letters of Paul to the Corinthians, either of two New Testament letters, or epistles, addressed by St. Paul the Apostle to the Christian community that he had founded at Corinth, Greece. The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians and the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians are the seventh and

Letter of Paul to the Galatians, ninth book of the New Testament, written by St. Paul the Apostle to Christian churches (exact location uncertain) that were disturbed by a Judaizing faction. Paul probably wrote the epistle from Ephesus about 53–54 to a church he had founded in the territory of

Letters of Paul to Timothy, either of two New Testament writings addressed to St. Timothy, one of St. Paul the Apostle’s most faithful coworkers. The First Letter of Paul to Timothy and the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy are the 15th and 16th books of the New Testament canon. Together with the

Letter of Paul to Titus, New Testament writing addressed to one of St. Paul the Apostle’s close companions, St. Titus, who was the organizer of the churches in Crete. It is the 17th book of the New Testament canon. The letter to Titus and the two Letters of Paul to Timothy have been called the

Mark Akenside: …Akenside turned to satire in An Epistle to Curio, occasioned by the political about-face of William Pulteney, who professed Whig sympathies for years but then accepted the earldom of Bath from a Tory ministry. The following year Akenside published Odes on Several Subjects. He had, meanwhile, been unsuccessful in attempts…

An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, poem by Alexander Pope, completed in 1734 and published in January 1735. Addressed to Pope’s friend John Arbuthnot, the epistle is an apology in which Pope defends his works against the attacks of his detractors, particularly the writers Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,

Alexander Hume: ” “Epistle to Maister Gilbert Mont-Crief” is an interesting early example of autobiography.

patristic literature: The gnostic writers: …by Irenaeus to Valentinus; the Epistle to Rheginos, a Valentinian work, possibly by Valentinus himself, on the Resurrection; and a Tripartite Treatise, probably written by Heracleon, of the school of Valentinianism. The other documents from the Najʿ Ḥammādī library include the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of sayings and parables…

Grimké sisters: Sarah followed with An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States. The sisters’ public identification with the abolitionist cause rendered them anathema in their native city and state and even strained their Quaker friendships.

Alexander Pope: Life at Twickenham: …principles, formulated in his “Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington” (1731). This poem, one of the most characteristic works of his maturity, is a rambling discussion in the manner of Horace on false taste in architecture and design, with some suggestions for the worthier employment of…

Karl Barth: Years in Germany: …major work, Der Römerbrief (1919; The Epistle to the Romans), established his position as a notable theologian with a new and arresting message about the sheer Godness of God and the unlimited range of his grace. Barth’s style was vividly lit up by brilliant similes and turns of phrase and…

John Dryden: Verse satires of John Dryden: …vigorous and plainspoken prose “Epistle to the Whigs.” In the same year, anonymously and apparently without Dryden’s authority, there also appeared in print his famous extended lampoon, Mac Flecknoe, written about four years earlier. What triggered this devastating attack on the Whig playwright Thomas Shadwell has never been satisfactorily…

Plato: Life: … in Sicily (many of the Letters concern these, though their authenticity is controversial) led to a deep personal attachment to Dion (408–354 bce), brother-in-law of Dionysius the Elder (430–367 bce), the tyrant of Syracuse. Plato, at Dion’s urging, apparently undertook to put into practice the ideal of the “philosopher-king” (described…

Horace: Life: …encouraged Horace to write his Epistles. Book I may have been published in 20 bc, and Book II probably appeared in 14 bc. These two books are very different in theme and content. Although similar to the Satires in style and content, the Epistles lack the earlier poems’ aggressiveness and…

encyclopaedia: The Arab world: …the 10th century, published the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa khillān al-wafāʾ (“Epistles of the Brethren of Purity and Loyal Friends”), a remarkable work that consisted of 52 pamphlets written by five authors, comprising all the knowledge available in their milieu. The work included (1) mathematics, geography, music, logic, and ethics;…

Ovid: Life: …Epistolae Heroidum, or Heroides (Epistles of the Heroines), the Medicamina faciei (“Cosmetics”; Eng. trans. The Art of Beauty), the Ars amatoria (The Art of Love), and the Remedia amoris (Remedies for Love), all reflecting the brilliant, sophisticated, pleasure-seeking society in which he moved. The common theme of those early…

Baghdad school: …frontispiece to a book, “The Epistles of the Sincere Brethren,” dated 1287, demonstrates that the main stylistic elements of the Baghdad school survived to the last. This illustration, in the Mosque of Süleyman in Istanbul, again shows realism in detail while maintaining an overall decorative quality. The authors of the…

Ars poetica, work by Horace, written about 19–18 bce for Piso and his sons and originally known as Epistula ad Pisones (Epistle to the Pisos). The work is an urbane, unsystematic amplification of Aristotle’s discussion of the decorum or internal propriety of each literary genre, which at Horace’s

Christianity: The Middle Ages: …in his popular and influential Epistola ad Gerbergam reginam de ortu et tempore Antichristi (“Letter to Queen Gerberga on the Place and Time of Antichrist”), a mirror image in the negative of the lives of Jesus and the saints. Adso’s treatise became the standard account of the life of the…

classical scholarship: The 18th century: the age of Bentley: …new era began with the Epistola ad Joannum Millium (1691) of Richard Bentley (1662–1742). This collection of brilliant miscellaneous observations, prompted by the editio princeps of the 6th-century Byzantine chronicle of John Malalas, displayed already the comprehensive learning and rare power of divination that were to enable Bentley to lay…

Amerigo Vespucci: Vespucci’s voyages: …under the titles of “Quattuor Americi navigationes” and “Mundus Novus,” or “Epistola Alberici de Novo Mundo.” The second series consists of three private letters addressed to the Medici. In the first series of documents, four voyages by Vespucci are mentioned; in the second, only two. Until the 1930s the…

textual criticism: Reaction against the genealogical method: Sauppe in his Epistola Critica ad G. Hermannum had emphasized the diversity of transmissional situations and the difficulty or actual impossibility of classifying the manuscripts in all cases. In 1843 Lachmann’s pupil O. Jahn, in his edition of Persius, had repudiated the strict application of the genealogical method…

Isaac Of Stella: …composed his principal work, the Epistola de anima ad Alcherum (“Letter to Alcher on the Soul”), a compendium of psychology in the Cistercian tradition of providing a logical basis for theories of mysticism, done in 1162 at the request of the monk-philosopher Alcher of Clairvaux. This treatise served as the…

electromagnetism: Early observations and applications: In his oft-cited Epistola de magnete (1269; “Letter on the Magnet”), Peregrinus described having placed a thin iron rectangle on different parts of a spherically shaped piece of magnetite (or lodestone) and marked the lines along which it set itself. The lines formed a set of meridians of…

A Letter Concerning Toleration, in the history of political philosophy, an important essay by the English philosopher John Locke, originally written in Latin (Epistola de Tolerantia) in 1685 while Locke was in exile in Holland and first published anonymously in both Latin and English (in a

electromagnetism: Early observations and applications: In his oft-cited Epistola de magnete (1269; “Letter on the Magnet”), Peregrinus described having placed a thin iron rectangle on different parts of a spherically shaped piece of magnetite (or lodestone) and marked the lines along which it set itself. The lines formed a set of meridians of…

feminism: The ancient world: …15th-century Venetian woman who published Epistolae familiares (1488; “Personal Letters”; Eng. trans. Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist), a volume of letters dealing with a panoply of women’s complaints, from denial of education and marital oppression to the frivolity of women’s attire.

Ovid: Life: …Epistolae Heroidum, or Heroides (Epistles of the Heroines), the Medicamina faciei (“Cosmetics”; Eng. trans. The Art of Beauty), the Ars amatoria (The Art of Love), and the Remedia amoris (Remedies for Love), all reflecting the brilliant, sophisticated, pleasure-seeking society in which he moved. The common theme of those early…

Petrarch: Classical studies and career (1330–40): …was to include in the Epistolae metricae (66 “letters” in Latin hexameter verses) and some of the vernacular Rime inspired by his love for Laura. At Vaucluse he began to work on Africa, an epic poem on the subject of the Second Punic War. He also began work on De…

German literature: Reformation: Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515–17; The Letters of Obscure Men), a witty satire written in large part by the humanists Crotus Rubeanus (Johannes Jäger) and Ulrich von Hutten against the anti-Semitic and antihumanistic forces at work in the German universities, opened a gap between humanists and conservative scholastic intellectuals that…

epistle, a composition in prose or poetry written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group. In literature there are two basic traditions of verse epistles, one derived from Horace’s Epistles and the other from Ovid’s Epistulae heroidum (better known as Heroides). The tradition based

epistolary novel, a novel told through the medium of letters written by one or more of the characters. Originating with Samuel Richardson’s Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), the story of a servant girl’s victorious struggle against her master’s attempts to seduce her, it was one of the earliest

ancient Egypt: Administration and economy under Rome: There were three or four epistratēgoi in charge of regional subdivisions; special officers were in charge of the emperors’ private account, the administration of justice, religious institutions, and so on. Subordinate to them were the local officials in the nomes (stratēgoi and royal scribes) and finally the authorities in the…

ancient Egypt: Administration and economy under Rome: There were three or four epistratēgoi in charge of regional subdivisions; special officers were in charge of the emperors’ private account, the administration of justice, religious institutions, and so on. Subordinate to them were the local officials in the nomes (stratēgoi and royal scribes) and finally the authorities in the…

Christine de Pisan: …10 volumes in verse, including L’Épistre au Dieu d’amours (1399; “Letter to the God of Loves”), in which she defended women against the satire of Jean de Meun in the Roman de la rose.

Ars poetica, work by Horace, written about 19–18 bce for Piso and his sons and originally known as Epistula ad Pisones (Epistle to the Pisos). The work is an urbane, unsystematic amplification of Aristotle’s discussion of the decorum or internal propriety of each literary genre, which at Horace’s

biblical literature: Letters: …apocryphal letters are: a 2nd-century Epistula Apostolorum (“Epistle of the Apostles”; actually apocalyptic and antiheretical), the Letter of Barnabas, a lost Letter of Paul to the Alexandrians (said to have been forged by followers of Marcion), the late 2nd-century letter called “III Corinthians” (part of the Acts of Paul and…

Ovid: Works of Ovid: The Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto were written and sent to Rome at the rate of about a book a year from 9 ce on. They consist of letters to the emperor and to Ovid’s wife and friends describing his miseries and appealing for clemency. For all his…

Seneca: Philosophical works and tragedies: …Ad Lucilium epistulae morales (Moral Letters to Lucilius). Those 124 brilliant essays treat a range of moral problems not easily reduced to a single formula.

Yannis Ritsos: His next collection, Epitafios (1936; “Funeral Lament”), was symbolically burned at the foot of the Acropolis, and for nearly a decade he could not publish freely. During the Nazi occupation of Greece (1944) and the start of the civil war, Ritsos joined with the Communist guerrillas; after their…

epitaph, an inscription in verse or prose upon a tomb; and, by extension, anything written as if to be inscribed on a tomb. Probably the earliest surviving are those of the ancient Egyptians, written on the sarcophagi and coffins. Ancient Greek epitaphs are often of considerable literary interest,

jazz: The mainstream enlarged: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and others: …the monumental two-and-a-half-hour, posthumously premiered Epitaph. Accumulated between the early 1940s and 1962 and composed for 31 instruments, Epitaph is a gigantic summation of everything Mingus felt and heard in music, from the gentlest lyric ballads and earthy blues to the most complex and advanced Ivesian and Stravinskian orchestral excursions.

Brazilian literature: Emergence of the republic: …of the Brazilian novel with Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881; “The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas”; Eng. trans. Epitaph of a Small Winner), the capricious upper-class cynical and intrusive narrator of which speaks from the grave, and with Dom Casmurro (1899; Eng. trans. Dom Casmurro), a fictional autobiography by…

François Villon: Life: …he wrote his superb “Ballade des pendus,” or “L’Épitaphe Villon”, in which he imagines himself hanging on the scaffold, his body rotting, and he makes a plea to God against the “justice” of men. At this time, too, he wrote his famous wry quatrain “Je suis Françoys, dont il…

panegyric: Akin to panegyric was the epitaphion, or funeral oration, such as Pericles’ funeral speech as recorded by Thucydides, a panegyric both on war heroes and on Athens itself.

John Milton: Travel abroad: …an elegy in Latin, “Epitaphium Damonis” (“Damon’s Epitaph”), which commemorated Diodati.

epitaxy, the process of growing a crystal of a particular orientation on top of another crystal, where the orientation is determined by the underlying crystal. The creation of various layers in semiconductor wafers, such as those used in integrated circuits, is a typical application for the

materials science: Epitaxial layers: For the efficient emission or detection of photons, it is often necessary to constrain these processes to very thin semiconductor layers. These thin layers, grown atop bulk semiconductor wafers, are called epitaxial layers because their crystallinity matches that of the substrate even though…

epitaxy, the process of growing a crystal of a particular orientation on top of another crystal, where the orientation is determined by the underlying crystal. The creation of various layers in semiconductor wafers, such as those used in integrated circuits, is a typical application for the

epithalamium, song or poem to the bride and bridegroom at their wedding. In ancient Greece, the singing of such songs was a traditional way of invoking good fortune on the marriage and often of indulging in ribaldry. By derivation, the epithalamium should be sung at the marriage chamber; but the

Epithalamion, marriage ode by Edmund Spenser, originally published with his sonnet sequence Amoretti in 1595. The poem celebrates Spenser’s marriage in 1594 to his second wife, Elizabeth Boyle, and it may have been intended as a culmination of the sonnets of Amoretti. Taken as a whole, the group of

epithalamium, song or poem to the bride and bridegroom at their wedding. In ancient Greece, the singing of such songs was a traditional way of invoking good fortune on the marriage and often of indulging in ribaldry. By derivation, the epithalamium should be sung at the marriage chamber; but the

George Buchanan: …poem in five books, and Epithalamium (1558), a poem on the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the French dauphin, he returned to Scotland in 1561. At first a supporter of Mary, he became her bitter enemy after the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley, in 1567. He…

forebrain: hypothalamus, epithalamus, and subthalamus. The forebrain plays a central role in the processing of information related to complex cognitive activities, sensory and associative functions, and voluntary motor activities. It represents one of the three major developmental divisions of the brain; the other two are the midbrain…

epithalamium, song or poem to the bride and bridegroom at their wedding. In ancient Greece, the singing of such songs was a traditional way of invoking good fortune on the marriage and often of indulging in ribaldry. By derivation, the epithalamium should be sung at the marriage chamber; but the

mesothelioma: Diagnosis and subtypes of mesothelioma: The most common subtype is epithelial mesothelioma, followed by biphasic, or mixed, disease, which has epithelial and sarcomatous (connective tissue) involvement; less common is the solely sarcomatoid subtype. The pathologic diagnosis of mesothelioma, using microscopic techniques, can be difficult and often requires that a battery of immunohistochemistry (IHC) tests be…

laryngeal cancer: …carcinoma; the other, called a papilloma, often is benign but occasionally becomes malignant.

stem cell: Epithelial stem cells: The epidermis of the skin contains layers of cells called keratinocytes. Only the basal layer, next to the dermis, contains cells that divide. A number of these cells are stem cells, but the majority are transit amplifying cells. The keratinocytes slowly move…

artiodactyl: Reproductive specializations: Hippopotamuses and pigs have an epitheliochorial placenta, a layer of fetal tissue merely pressed close against the uterus wall, but camels and ruminants possess a syndesmochorial placenta, in which the epithelium of the maternal tissues is eroded to facilitate intercommunication. This is an advance over the epitheliochorial placenta, but the…

epithelioma, an abnormal growth, or tumour, of the epithelium, the layer of tissue (such as the skin or mucous membrane) that covers the surfaces of organs and other structures of the body. Epitheliomas can be benign or malignant (that is, cancerous), and there are various types depending on the

epithelium, in anatomy, layer of cells closely bound to one another to form continuous sheets covering surfaces that may come into contact with foreign substances. Epithelium occurs in both plants and animals. In animals, outgrowths or ingrowths from these surfaces form structures consisting

mineral deposit: Veins: …are commonly referred to as epithermal, a term retained from an old system of classifying hydrothermal deposits based on the presumed temperature and depth of deposition. Epithermal veins tend not to have great vertical continuity, but many are exceedingly rich and deserving of the term bonanza. Many of the famous…

epithet, adjective or phrase that is used to express a characteristic of a person or thing, such as Ivan the Terrible. In literature, the term is considered an element of poetic diction, something that distinguishes the language of poetry from ordinary language. Homer used certain epithets so

Measure for Measure: Shakespeare adapted the story from Epitia, a tragedy by Italian dramatist Giambattista Giraldi (also called Cinthio), and especially from a two-part play by George Whetstone titled Promos and Cassandra (1578).

animal reproductive system: Annelids and mollusks: …anterior atoke and a posterior epitoke, in which gonads develop. When the moon is in a specific phase, the epitoke separates from the rest of the body and swims to the surface. The female epitoke apparently stimulates the male epitoke to release sperm, and sperm release, in turn, evokes expulsion…

animal reproductive system: Annelids and mollusks: …anterior atoke and a posterior epitoke, in which gonads develop. When the moon is in a specific phase, the epitoke separates from the rest of the body and swims to the surface. The female epitoke apparently stimulates the male epitoke to release sperm, and sperm release, in turn, evokes expulsion…

Nicolaus Copernicus: Early life and education: …a student of the heavens: Epitoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei (“Epitome of Ptolemy’s Almagest”) by Johann Müller (also known as Regiomontanus, 1436–76) and Disputationes adversus astrologianm divinatricenm (“Disputations against Divinatory Astrology”) by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94). The first provided a summary of the foundations of Ptolemy’s astronomy, with

Vegetius: …Rei militaris instituta, also called Epitoma rei militaris, written sometime between 384 and 389, advocated a revival of the old system but had almost no influence on the decaying military forces of the later Roman Empire. His rules on siege craft and on the need for discipline, however, were studied…

Helgaud: …of Fleury-sur-Loire whose major work, Epitoma vitae Roberti regis, is an artless, historically unreliable biography of the French king Robert II the Pious.

Paul of Aegina: …known by its Latin title, Epitomae medicae libri septem (“Medical Compendium in Seven Books”), containing nearly everything known about the medical arts in the West in his time.

Justin: …who was the author of Epitome, an abridgment of the Historiae Philippicae et totius mundi origines et terrae situs (Philippic Histories) by Pompeius Trogus, whose work is lost. Most of the abridgement is not so much a summary as passages quoted from Trogus, connected by colourless moralizing by Justin. Nothing…

Li Zhizao: …Ricci translated his arithmetic primer Epitome arithmeticae practicae (1585; “Selected Arithmetic Methods”) as Tongwen suanzhi (1614). This book systematically introduced European-style mathematical notation, while Li included complementary elements from traditional Chinese mathematics. Li also wrote a short treatise on geometry dictated by Ricci. Together with the Portuguese Jesuit Francisco Furtado…

Johannes Kepler: Astronomical work of Johannes Kepler: …astronomy, Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae (1618–21; Epitome of Copernican Astronomy). The title mimicked Maestlin’s traditional-style textbook, but the content could not have been more different. The Epitome began with the elements of astronomy but then gathered together all the arguments for Copernicus’s theory and added to them Kepler’s harmonics and new…

Guillaume du Bellay, seigneur de Langey: …of France were published as Épitome de l’antiquité des Gaules et de France (1556; “Abridgment of the Early Times of Gaul and France”).